NSA Articles

Since 1952, the United States’ National Security Agency has been finding wants to listen in on people’s communications around the world, and with the rise of the internet the NSA has been researching hacking techniques. And the agency became quite good at hacking, having a range of software, malware, ransomware and other nasties at the ready to get into someone’s system to find information or cause havoc.

A halt to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) controversial surveillance program known as “about” collection is now in place. What this program aimed to do was to gain access to emails and messages that contained information about foreign surveillance targets. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) made the ruling to halt the “about” tactic as there was no way it could comply with the constitutional rights of Americans.

A new document unearthed from the massive Snowden leak shows the National Security Agency and Government Communications Headquarters attacked Kaspersky security software in an attempt to counter anti-virus efforts.

With monitoring often the result of viruses uploaded into targeted systems (or through creating a virus-run network of infected computers), anti-virus software has been a real pain for spy agencies. One that has been especially targeted is security agency Kaspersky Lab.

How far should security go, and how much privacy should be taken from citizens in the name of security is a question asked by many. Is it security if the NSA (National Security Agency.) hack into the Google Play store to put spyware on smartphones?

This is something the NSA planned to do in conjunction with its allies in the “Five Eyes” alliance of the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Who would have been targeted, why they were targeted, and what, if any, safe guards were in place for any innocent people caught up in the surveillance are questions unanswered. Agencies like the NSA are losing the trust of people they’re supposed to be protecting, if they haven’t already lost it.

Reports that the US and UK’s NSA and GCHQ organizations gained access to the encryption keys of SIM chip maker Gemalto has once again underlined the reach and global nature of modern government surveillance.

The manufacturer is a Dutch-French security firm that specializes in encrypted SIM cards meant to protect the privacy of mobile calls and data. Without the code to that encryption, users could be assured that their conversations were being kept secure.

When the level of NSA spying efforts began to become apparent thanks to the massive document leak by whistleblower Edward Snowden, encryption was touted as the solution. But as the agency’s ability to decrypt was exposed, the number of viable options has become smaller.

Encryption is often promoted as the be-all-end-all solution to all online security woes. We now know that it is unfortunately a flawed system that has been cracked for years.

One of the more alarming reports about NSA activities in the last few months was released today by Daserste.de. Some of it may even surprise you.

First on the list is news sure to rile Germany into a rage, once again. Two servers, one in Berlin and one in Nuremberg, are allegedly under NSA surveillance. At least these two have been infected with XKeyscore, the powerful spying software used by the NSA to steal data from servers across the globe.

Of special interest is Tor, presumably a driving factor behind the development of XKeyscore. No surprise there, as anonymous browsing is certainly against everything the NSA stands for.